TH and phenotype

[shorthorns r us]

Does it make sense to have breast enlargements? Does it make sense to have glamour photos taken of yourself? Does it make sense to take steroids. The show world is a beauty contest. My goal is to have a defect free herd. I have people showing up and skimming the top off the heifer calves before I can get them tested. They are always th carriers. I don't have a lot of it. I am putting 25 heifer calves back into my herd and all but 2 are th free. I had like 6 sell before I could get them tested and they all came up th positive latter on. There is a look to them. The buyers knew about the possibilities. I know a guy who tested every female in his herd(shorthorn...we'll call him marty) He hauled every th carrier to the salebarn. This takes guts and I admire that. It is a difficult situation.If it ever bleeds over into the commercial industry it is goig to be a nightmare.

where did those thc cows go from the salebarn?

 

[aj]

Excellent point SRU. I don't know if they were harvested or not. Thats the thing about the defects is they are out there forever unless you terminate the line. There are angus and herford cattle that still carry the dwarfism mutation from the 1950's or whenever. It would be interesting in putting a list together of the most influential sires as far as spreading defects. St. Louis Lad...Doublestuff....Deerpark Improver.... on and on. Then you have a bull like Warhorse who is a carrier of monkey mouth,pha, and th. He is the king there. You have mule foot, rat tail, and all kind of stuff out there. I don't consider the polled gene, or red gene to be a defect but you had Angus bulls like the old Continental or whoever dispersing the red gene in the angus.It's fascinating.